Andrew Stickel

Here’s an important suggestion that we made several months ago to an attorney who is one of our clients. It’s a tip regarding his incoming phone calls – a tip that actually doubled his intake.

In fact, he sent us this email: “I tested the new answering service for two months, and it seems to work well. Our intake has gone from 27 new clients in October and November to 55 new clients in December and January. Did the number of phone calls increase?”

When we called this client to arrange a meeting back in September, we realized that his telephone system had one of those “press one for this and press two for that” messages.

We checked on the duration of his phone calls, and we found that a lot of people were hanging up within one minute, and they hung up without speaking to a live person or leaving a message.

That needed fixing.

WHAT DO CALLERS WANT?

Using a system called Dialogtech, we are able to segment a client’s phone calls to determine which particular calls are generated by the work we do at Social Firestarter. How?

When a visitor arrives at a client’s website because the visitor was directed there through our SEO (search engine optimization) work, it automatically changes the phone number on the website – so that we can see precisely how many phone calls our work is generating.

We compared the client’s October/November call report, with 27 new clients, against his December/January call report, with 55 new clients. It’s just one of the many ways we monitor our own work as an internet marketing company.

The number of this client’s individual phone calls in the December/January period did not double – in fact, that number slightly declined. What we found, however, is that callers very much want to talk to a live person.

WHO ANSWERS YOUR PHONE AFTER OFFICE HOURS?

We’ve conducted this test for other clients as well. Every time a client of ours changes over from an automated telephone answering system to having telephone calls answered by a live person, the intake numbers always go up, and when the intakes go up, the number of new cases goes up too.

Especially consider what happens after office hours. Do your calls go to a voicemail, or do they go to an answering service or your private cell phone?

If it’s at all possible, you need to have your phone answered by a live person – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

We’ve seen it consistently. You will take in more calls when a live person answers every time, and you will quickly have more clients.

I recently received some mail from an attorney. It’s in kind of a “newsletter” format, so I want to go through it with you briefly.

This piece of mail misses the mark in a lot of ways. I’ll tell you why.

Honestly, however, our internet marketing agency does not recommend using physical mailers. You get much more bang for your buck by marketing effectively on the internet, and we help attorneys and law firms do exactly that.

Still, if you’re interested in physical mailers, here are some ways to hit the mark a little more accurately.

TARGET YOUR MAILER

You must target your audience more precisely. I’m ninety minutes from this attorney’s Orlando office, in another county. I do not know this attorney, and I did not sign up for his newsletter.

If people are wondering “Why did I receive this?” that is probably not a good way to introduce your law practice.

Secondly, the content is, well, just plain wrong. The mailer is from a personal injury attorney, and its newsletter format features two pieces of content.

DO NOT – REPEAT, DO NOT – USE LONG BLOCKS OF UNINTERRUPTED TEXT

One is a lengthy piece of writing about an award going to a community safety activist – which is fine, but I do not know the person, and it’s not my community.

The second piece is an even longer, essentially autobiographical article about the “lessons” of divorce, although the attorney is advertising as a personal injury lawyer.

Both pieces of writing feature almost unbearably long blocks of almost unreadably small solid text. The second page of the “newsletter” is nothing but text.

It’s too long and I didn’t read it. But if I did, I still would have no idea who this attorney is, why he is contacting me, or what he can do for me.

I simply do not see how this mailer helps this attorney in any way.

WHAT ARE SOME MORE EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVES?

If you are going to do a mailer, have something attractive designed by a graphic artist.

We’ve had a number of infographics created for us – inexpensively – that provide useful information in an “easy-to-digest” and visually appealing format.

Those infographics receive plenty of good comments and a considerable number of shares.

WHAT ARE YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES? WE’D LIKE TO KNOW

That’s just one of the ways the mailer that I received could be substantially improved.

If you’ve had good – or bad – experiences doing mailers, we’d like to know. Our internet marketing agency is always ready to discuss advertising and marketing ideas.

Email us – info@socialfirestarter.com – or call us at 619-607-4300.

We’ve worked with a lot of law firms over the years – we work with about fifty right now – and as we’ve learned what works and what doesn’t, we’ve actually started to perfect the ideal law firm landing page.

If you visit our clients’ websites, you’ll see that we use a similar format for almost all of our lawyer clients because these landing page elements work.

Maybe you can use these elements for your own landing page – we’re an internet marketing agency that is happy to offer these suggestions freely.

Please contact us with your questions or to share with us the landing page ideas that have – or haven’t – worked for you.

When we create a law firm landing page, it includes these seven key elements: benefits, features, proof, trust, image, offer, and form.

But first – and this is vital – something you should never do on your firm’s landing page is use a “slider.” Never. It’s a popular webpage element.

A typical slider starts with a dynamic photo across the top of the landing page and a phrase like “Fighting for Justice Since 2002.”

Then another picture “slides” in, and it’s you, working at your desk, and a phrase like “Over $30 Million in Verdicts for Clients” (or something appropriate to your own practice).

Why avoid sliders? Attention spans are short, so apart from the fact that sliders don’t convert well on mobile devices, the main problem is that sliders split a visitor’s attention – the eye is automatically drawn to moving text and moving pictures, so the slider actually functions as a distraction from your message.

When we’ve replaced a slider with a static image, almost instantly, the incoming phone calls double. Sites with abundant traffic – but few conversions – suddenly start producing conversions when a slider is replaced with a static image and a strong call-to-action.

BENEFITS

Benefits are the first and most important element on your landing page. How will your prospective client benefit by hiring you?

A personal injury attorney usually highlights compensation for medical bills and wages, while a criminal defense attorney might focus on keeping a client out of jail.

Why are benefits such a key element? Benefits put the focus on the prospective client. Our natural tendency is to focus on ourselves.

What first grabs a visitor’s attention on too many law firm landing pages is the dollar amount of verdicts won or the number of years defending the rights of the injured or the accused.

That comes next, but what a prospective client wants to know first is, “What will you do for me?” Benefits might include:

1. “You and your case will receive an attorney’s direct personal attention.”
2. “You’ll work directly with an attorney, not a case worker or a paralegal.”
3. “You’ll pay us nothing unless we win compensation for you.”
4. “Call now to arrange a free, initial legal consultation with no obligation.”

This is the most important part of the page because you’re offering precisely what prospective clients seek.

We’ve also found that using numbers with a short list is more effective than checkboxes or bullet points. A short, numbered list of benefits works best.

FEATURES

Next, we highlight features. After prospective clients see what you can do for them, they want to know that you’re qualified.

You may highlight your years of experience, the number or dollar amount of the verdicts you’ve won, or you can say any number of things about yourself.

The key is to balance features against benefits so that prospective clients feel like they are being put first.

PROOF

“Proof” is social proof: awards, testimonials, professional groups you belong to, or a five-star Google ranking. We often use the logos of bar associations and professional groups.

Don’t crowd too much proof onto your landing page. Three logos – maybe your state’s bar association and two professional groups – is the perfect amount of proof.

If you include a testimonial, keep it short – just one or two lines – and don’t use it if you also use logos. Sometimes, we insert a sidebar for a testimonial.

The key is placing just enough proof strategically on the landing page without “coming off” as boastful – or desperate.

TRUST

The little picture of a padlock below a contact form – a simple graphic – can actually double the number of conversions.

Prospective clients who feel exposed and vulnerable may be reassured if they are offered a free, no-obligation case evaluation.

If you don’t offer a free consultation, come up with something tangible that increases trust – perhaps a Better Business Bureau endorsement.

IMAGE

If you’re the lawyer, you’re the product, so your picture should be near the top. We find that a black-and-white picture works better, but most clients prefer color photos of themselves.

Every landing page we create seeks to balance what our clients like with what their website visitors like and with what the Google search algorithms like.

OFFER

A personal touch helps, so instead of merely the words “Free Consultation,” you might say, “Call me as soon as possible about my free consultation.”

Don’t hide the phone number or contact form near the bottom of the page and force your visitor to scroll – make it easy for your offer to be accepted.

Again, if you don’t provide free consultations, you still must offer a precise reason why a visitor should contact you.

FORM

Prominently feature a phone number, contact form, and/or chat box.

We typically include a phone number in the header, a right-sidebar contact form, and a chat box in the bottom right corner.

Anything you can do to make these prominent – contrasting colors, for example – will help.

That’s it, the perfect landing page. If you have questions or comments, or if you’d like to discuss your landing page and website, email us at Social Firestarter – info@socialfirestarter.com – or call us at 619-607-4300.

Whether or not you advertise on Yelp, if you do legal marketing online, you should know. Yelp’s sales tactics are aggressive, and that’s just the beginning. Yelp is frequently accused of manipulating attorney and law firm reviews.

If you own your own law firm, then you’ve probably received calls from a Yelp sales representative.

Our internet marketing agency sees abundant evidence that Yelp manipulates attorneys’ reviews, although they deny it.

One law firm, for example, declined to buy advertising from Yelp, and the very next day, all five of their five-star Yelp reviews were filtered – hidden from visitors – and what remained visible was their single two-star review.

These lawyers believe their best reviews were hidden because they did not purchase Yelp advertising.

WHAT HAVE WE HEARD AND SEEN?

We hear a lot of similar stories about reviews changing because attorneys decide to advertise or to not advertise with Yelp.

One client of ours, a personal injury firm in Los Angeles, had several five-star reviews filtered and only a one-star review showing.

Yelp called the firm to sell advertising, and they said, “No, because you’re hiding our good reviews.”

Several days later, the rep called back and told the attorneys to check their Yelp listing. Yelp denies manipulating reviews, but our client’s five-star reviews were now unfiltered.

There is no direct proof that Yelp is unethical as a company, but there are too many “coincidences” to ignore.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Yelp has been sued for pressuring small businesses, and shady things have happened to several of our clients. Another marketer came up with an important suggestion that we intend to share with our clients because something isn’t right at Yelp.

Here’s the tip:

When Yelp calls to sell advertising, don’t say no. Advertise with Yelp if you like – some people get great results, others don’t – but instead of saying “No,” say that you don’t have time to talk now, “but could you email me, and we’ll schedule time in two weeks,” or “after I return from my month-long vacation,” or whatever you can say that pauses the conversation.

SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH US

It’s unfortunate that any company has that power, because as an attorney, your reputation is everything.

If someone looks for you online and goes to your Yelp page, even if you have ten five-star reviews and two negative reviews, Yelp can hide the five-star reviews and only show those two negative reviews.

When Yelp does that, your rating drops to one star. Prospective clients will look elsewhere. When a Yelp representative calls to sell advertising, saying “No” isn’t worth the risk. If you aren’t buying, stall.

Let us know what your experiences have been with Yelp. We’re an internet marketing agency that learns from our clients as we meet their marketing needs, and we’ll continue to share this kind of important information.